


One Little Spark

by inkandwater



Category: Journey Into Imagination (Ride)
Genre: Gen, imagination scanner, mentions Dreamfinder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:07:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29270007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkandwater/pseuds/inkandwater
Summary: Dr. Nigel Channing is unaware of unseen forces at work after firing up the imagination scanner.
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

The loss of Dreamfinder was tangible.

His absence sent ripples across the centuries and those ripples had sent Dr. Nigel Channing convulsing.

The heart of Dreamfinder’s creation had found him.

Figment’s wings, though they were soft and delicate in nature like a butterfly’s had caused an outrageously, unpredictable outcome.

## Neither dreaming, nor pretending…

Figment’s wings created the slight breeze as most patrons who visited the imagination pavilion felt that day described the feeling…was almost…supernatural. A feeling of loss and nostalgia no one could quite put their fingers upon.

Sentimental.

Someone was missing.

No one was quite sure who it was the visitors were missing.

A collective conscious was working together as everyone was trying to answer to this foreboding question.

Their feelings were brief but no one really forgotten the ripples.

No one ever had.

Some of them felt happiness, some of them were so happy a few of them cried. Like they felt the welcoming, warm spirit that entered Orlando, Florida that day that told them everything was going to be okay.


	2. Chapter 2

It was during this brief questionable moments as the guests who were attending the Imagination Institutes open house were unaware.

The organization’s chairman Nigel Channing had collapsed inside of his office.

An empty ambulance was parked outside of the institute.

Everyone’s attention was abruptly cut short when a pair of EMTs were seen rushing past cast members and Nigel’s seasoned staff of professionals.

## No beginning and no ending

_An awareness of an existence._

_The heartbeats of a living breathing creation._

“Relax,” Figment whispers in his ear. 

Nigel’s eyes go soft. “what…are you?” he asked. His throat seizes up. He can’t say much of anything else. He barely has enough energy in himself to speak at all. Granted, after the sudden loss of consciousness he managed to bite the inside of cheek.

He awoken with a mouth full of blood.

Assessing any further damages to himself and his office.

He noticed he laid beside his broken coffee mug. It shattered into a million fragments. Feeling a pang of remorse. Nigel knew he was going to have to apologize to the secretary who gifted him the quaint novelty mug when all of this was over.

Nigel’s eyes slowly drifted back towards the dragon.

“Figment!” he answers.

 _“Something childish and dangerous,”_ these words flashed inside Nigel’s head like an alarm bell as he summed up Figment’s unprecedented arrival.

The room stretched and blurred when Figment addressed him again. This time the voice was an echo in his head. The world around Nigel slowly fading followed by absolute darkness and then the deafening roar of silence. 


	3. Chapter 3

“Figment,” Nigel said, rubbing his sore jaw. “an ambulance is not a ride.”

Technically it was a ride.

“And those people who carried you away into an ambulance on that stretcher yesterday, who were they?” Figment asked him.

Nigel remains quiet for a few seconds then recovers his voice. “those people,” he exclaimed slowly to Figment. “those were emergency medical technicians they help people that are ill and injured.” for some reason he couldn’t help but crack a toothy smile.

The small dragon had seated himself on his desk helping himself to the open package of jammy dodgers.

“Like you, Doc?” Figment says, after taking a large bite out of the biscuit.

“Yes,” Nigel said, looking down at the Figment in surprise.

“These are really good,” Figment yells, holding up the half eaten biscuit in his hand. “you wouldn’t mind if I make a cup of tea to go with this?”

“Maybe I should head home early today,” Nigel tells himself in his own disbelief.

He spent a sleepless night inside the emergency room because there were no available beds in regular rooms. Trying to shake off the extra added exhaustion from his first known seizure left him uncharacteristically shaken and tired.

“What kind of tea are we talking about?” Nigel asks, absent minded.

“A black tea,” Figment says, smiling.

“I’m all out of yorkshire,” Nigel mumbled.

“Do you got any hot chocolate?” Figment says. “I’ll accept hot chocolate! Chocolate is just as good,” he swallows another bite of jammy dodger then eagerly licked some of the crumbs from his lips. “Dreamfinder wouldn’t like it so much since he doesn’t let me eat a lot of sweets.”

“I do know Professor Salinski always has a few boxes in the company break room-” Nigel told him before his lungs seize again.

_Dreamfinder?_

Nigel laughed a dry humorless chuckle.


	4. Chapter 4

“Dreamfinder,” Nigel said, suddenly feeling uneasy. “umm…uh…who’s Dreamfinder?”

“He has a real name he goes by,” Figment says. "everyone who knows him calls him Blair,“ then he quickly finished the half-eaten biscuit with a few more crunches. "everyone who used to know him called him that.”

“How come I never heard of him before?” Nigel growled.

“That’s the thing,” Figment says, the question imposed an uncertainty. Something he wasn’t so sure about himself. “I don’t know where’s he gone. I don’t really understand what’s going on or why all of this is happening,” he chews on his trembling lip. “and every single time I tried searching for him nobody cared enough to help me. Which is why I-” 

Figment’s hopeless glare bores into Nigel’s eyes driving all the breath from his lungs. 

“You came to me.” Nigel says in a breathless whisper. "how am I supposed to help you?“ he slammed a fist on the desk. "Where do you think he may be right now?”

“Between the time of wakefulness and sleep is where he used to be,” Figment sadly, exclaimed. “when you’re really sleepy and those thoughts start forming like dew you see before morning. It’s that time when you can hear all kinds of voices and songs coming from nowhere. 

"Like lyrics,” Nigel added, humming a few bars of a song he composed himself a few days ago.

“That’s it!” Figment yelled.

“It still doesn’t matter how many hints you’ve dropped! How can I help you find something that doesn’t exist?” Nigel said, in a threatening tone that made Figment tense.

“The institute will help me,” Figment insisted.

Nigel looked stunned, seemingly at a loss for words. Then- “you’re assumption is correct.”

“And I used to be a imaginary myself.” Figment gently reminded the Doctor.

“And if you were imaginary how did it happen?” Nigel wheezed. “how did something come from nothing? Was it by magic or-”

“You have sparks, Doc,” Figment said, quietly. “you got lots of them. Normally it takes a lot of energy to power a thought like me but you made it easy.”


	5. Chapter 5

Nigel regretted asking such a question. Pain shot through him like a strong, electrical current. It was unfathomable. A cry echoed through the office and soon Figment approached him. “sparks, Doc! Don’t you remember? It’s what brought me here!”

“Sparks,” he argued, loud and clearly upset. “that’s not a spark! This isn’t even close to a scientific definition of a spark!” No longer could Nigel contain all the things he wanted answered and now he was at a point where he was not asking, he was demanding.

“No, not like this,” Figment admitted. “sharing a person’s headspace really doesn’t help me trying to convince anybody that I’m not imaginary." 

"Then say what you mean.” Nigel said, as politely as he could manage. 

“Sparks,” Figment repeated. 

“Sparks,” Nigel said, swallowing a pained gasp. “would you care to elaborate? ” His expression was convincingly sober. 

“Isn’t it like how humans experience birth?” Figment asked.

“What?!" 

"Um…uh…I really meant is, is, you know,” Figment stammered. “..uh..creation isn’t really supposed to be painful.” Nigel swore he could hear hint of cheerfulness in the small dragon’s voice. 

Was Figment aware of loaded language?

Art produced from pain? 

Nigel did not even come close to resembling the tortured artist mythology. What exactly does Figment mean? 

Dreamfinder taught Figment how to pluck ideas out of the air. He was the driving force behind mankind’s greatest known eureka moments.

It was like that..um..uh…that one word Blair taught him when he was just learning the ropes about harnessing the powers of creativity.

It was one of those real fancy words too.

“Poiesis,” Figment trilled. "everything is always responsible for something. Take this institute for example,“ the small dragon’s mood brightening. "it had all of the resources it provided to reveal that machine you were tinkering with yesterday!”

“The imagination scanner!” Nigel screamed. 

“Yes,” Figment shouted back. “that’s what brought me here!" 

“But what was all talk about? Why are you so concerned about pain from creation?”


	6. Chapter 6

The synapses inside Figment’s skull fired like the crack of a gunshot.

_Harnessing all that dream energy the Doc spent focusing on me wasn’t supposed to hurt him!_

“They don’t want me here,” Figment abruptly exclaimed. “someone or something knew about that machine and whatever sabotaged that invention of yours must know about Dreamfinder!”

“Something tampered with my invention?” Nigel said, raising his voice.

“I’m the reason, it’s because of me you’re in pain,” Figment said, apologetically. The small dragon lowered it’s head shamefully. “it’s a lot easier to imagine knowing whatever it is trying to prevent me from discovering the truth behind Dreamfinder’s disappearance they would go as far as to find some way of suppressing me.”

And why else would all of this be happening?

_I mean…it’s not like I’ve thought about them every now and again._

_Who else but the nightmare nation could be behind it all? There is no definite proof..but…it’s all I have to go on. This guy right here is the only one who has the power to convert mind to matter. And why would Doc ever bother keeping me around if If all that corrupted energy he used up is just gonna rack up a hefty medical bill?_

It taken Nigel a few awkward seconds mulling over Figment’s explanation before he could grope for a response. “and all this time I thought I was a failure,” he said, crossing his arms across his chest,“ he sniffled. "I-I..uh…honestly believed my invention would never work and here we both are.” he gave an irritant sigh, an opinion about how he felt.

“Are you okay, Doc?”

“Why would you say that?” Nigel said, licking his chapped lips.

“Your face is bone white,” Figment told him. He could feel fear blossoming inside of his chest. 

Anxiety.

Was Nigel really in any condition to battle unseen forces at work? 

“Figment will work something out,” Nigel says. Figment can hear it, the tremor in his voice. “will find Dreamfinder,” he swallows. “and find some way of fixing all this.” 


End file.
